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Now, maybe this isn't your problem, maybe you don't have this case ever happen to you (and if you don't, that's great, it doesn't mean that you are at all inferior) but, I'm wondering, "Do You Ever Run Out of Places to Fly?" Do you ever get tired of making the same, old, stale VA flights week after week? Do you ever get tired of flying around the UK (or USA or Brazil or Australia or wherever it is that you fly)? Well, if you do, or if you have EVER gone to turn on the sim and thought to yourself, "Hmmmm, where to fly..." then this may be just the piece you need to read.
First of all, I never have those kinds of problems. My problems are
more often along the lines of, "I have three flights I'd like to
finish but only 45 minutes to fly, which one shall I choose?" I've
been blessed to have traveled enough myself, I watch enough travel
and history shows on TV and have met enough simmers to keep me flying
for years to come. I also belong to a "Flight of the Month Club"
that offers me something new and generally exciting every 30 days or
so. (Speaking of which, I really need to get back to Papua
New Guinea; that was fun!) But what if that's not your case? What
if, when you bought FS, you started flying around your home
town...you checked out Hong Kong and Paris but finally settled down
to fly closer to home...say, Ohio, for example. What does FS really
have to offer in Gabon anyway? (If you don't know where Gabon is
then you really do need to get out more!) I hope that this piece
will inspire you to try something new for a change - if you prefer
your same old Tallinn to Helsinki route you can always come back to
that next time.
One day while pedaling the bicycle up the hill to work I started thinking about some of the simmers I have talked to over the years and about how too many of them (this is what makes this piece an Op-Ed because I'm stating my opinion here) just fly in the same old area (or hemisphere) time after time. We have How To's about panels and navigation, about ILS approaches and building rudder pedals, about tweaking your PC to run faster and about creating your own scenery...we even have How To's about flying around the world. (I should know, I wrote one of them) - But what about information on good places to fly?
Well, this becomes difficult because I don't know what or how you like to fly. Are 767s your thing or something more like a Beech Bonanza? Heck, you might even be one of those "Piper Cubs in British Columbia" guys (in which case, I have some short runways in New Guinea I'd like you to see)! Here's the deal folks, I've been offering you all my Floundering Around Series of Articles, offering you all places to take your sim, new things to try out. But now, I think it's YOUR TURN. Let's have YOU ALL submit your favorite flights to the Floundering Around Series! If you've never been published before this is a great place to start because it's easy writing - who knows more about your favorite sim area than you?
Option one is to go back into the archives here at www.flightsim.com and look for some fun-sounding articles like around the world flights, or real world stories or articles by real world pilots... even if you don't care a lick about New York or Seattle, try those flights - maybe you'll find out something new about the world. You could also go to any of the areas reviewed by scenery reviewers - like Colombia for example. Even if you don't have the payware add-on it's still a great place to fly (especially if you do most of your flying in ... Japan, for example).
Option number two might be to watch some TV; National Geographic or Travel Channel or Amazing Race, and then fly to some of those locations. You've just spent an hour learning about the place, try flying there in the sim - see what it's really like. (Well, not REALLY but sorta.) I recently saw a news documentary on Ghana so, went to check that out in the sim - the FS version needs some serious help! But the point is, I hadn't flown there before, have you?
Of course option number three is to just make up your own flight or scenario based on your favorite area, then, share that with the rest of the simming world. So, on to this particular piece of writing. Late last year I did a "Floundering Around" feature on The Hajj; Muslims' annual pilgrimage into Mecca. Taking the theme of great religious leaders, I decided it was time to do another tour (photo 02) (also partially based on Part Two of my recent "New Seven Wonders of the World" tour). So this time, I started in Gaza (photo 03) and flew a Dash-8 to Rome, (photo 04) stopping in many of the ancient ports frequented by the great Biblical writer Paul. (photo 05) Places like Jeruselem, (photo 06) Lydia (modern Syria) (photo 07), Phonecia (believed to be Lebanon) (photo 08), Ephesus (in Turkey) (photo 09), Corinth (in Greece) (photo 10), Colossus (Rhodes) (photo 11), Galacia (photo 12), Philipi (photo 13), Thessoloniki (photo 14), Ephesus (photo 15), and others (photo 16) (Is that Paul's boat down there?). I also stopped over briefly at some of the Greek Isles (photos 17 & 18) as Paul was imprisoned on Crete (as well as in Rome) and shipwrecked more than once during his years of sharing the Gospel to the known world. I won't bore you with endless details of Biblical history, nor with innumerable photos of my simming - but believe me, between the hills and the rocks and the water, (oh, and the cities too, (photo 19)) this is some of the most scenic simming in the virtual world! Quiz: Who can name photos 20 & 21?
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Ron Blehm
pretendpilot@yahoo.com
